


would a rose smell as sweet

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-08-29 11:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8487127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: Emma Swan, local tattoo artist, thinks she's had a pretty good life, overall, until she sublets a side shop to aspiring florist Regina Mills. (Yes, another florist//tattooist au fic. There's a reason it's classic.) May bump up the rating depending on... developments





	1. Chapter 1

     Emma Swan's been in the business of denying herself pleasure nearly her entire life. It makes sense, she'd explain to herself, because you don't feel the pain of disappointment when the happiness is gone. Not with everything; it isn't that Emma's unhappy or discontent, in fact she quite likes her life now. She has friends, a business, work she enjoys. She lets herself eat the chocolate cake, and she sleeps with people who are good in bed, but bad for her, and she sleeps easy with knowing pain, true emotional turmoil, can be avoided if people only tried. Pleasure dependent on other people couldn't survive for long, and it was Emma's first and second nature to navigate away from those kinds of risks.   
  
     Temporariness, the permanence of next to nothing, was a motivator in Emma's life before she realized it; and at 16, with her first tattoo, she'd already begun to battle it. Her mind's quite made up. Tattoos, not diamonds, or love, for that matter, were forever.   
  
     It's her birthday, she's 27, feeling old but alive- and she begins to open up her tattoo shop, the rail and clink of the security gate a morning greeting like any other. She's fumbling for the keys- she has too many-   
  
     "Are you Ms. Swan?" A girl around Emma's age disquiets the morning ritual, and Emma would've remembered if she had an early appointment today.   
  
     "Emma's fine," She says, wincing a small smile. "Can I uh, help you?"  
  
     "Regina Mills." The girl's foot, was she wearing heels?, tapped the pavement as realization flushed Emma's face.   
  
     Emma would not have remembered if she had an early appointment today.   
  
     "Right, right, we spoke on the phone. Um, just, one second." Emma fumbles with the lock for a few seconds more- doesn't she keep reminding Neal it sticks!- and then they're in her office which is it's usual complete disarray of sketches, invoices, and time sheets.   
  
     "Is that supposed to be a lily?" The girl's still standing in her office, looking ever out of place, while Emma clears a space at her desk, and she's pointing to a sketch up on the wall. Emma's ear hears the way she says  _supposed to be_ and fights a sigh.   
  
     "It's an old sketch; from awhile ago." Nearly another lifetime, Emma thinks, but doesn't dump her purse.   
  
      "Lily petals don't curve as you have them here. It's... it's more of an arc than this, at the bloom, than anything else." It was pretty, Regina could guess, but nothing to the real thing. Nothing at all, the more she looked at it.   
  
      "Well, I wish you would've corrected me about ten years ago." Emma shuffled through her desk for what she needed for Regina, before she started criticizing other work. Stripping off her red leather jacket, Emma peeled down the strap of her tank top with her back to Regina. "See? Damage kind of already done."   
  
      Regina blinked, eyes fixed on the girl's right shoulder, where the sketch of the lily was repeated, with purple coloring and shading. It was more beautiful than the sketch to be sure, quite striking; but still not really an exact lily. Snapping her shirt back into place, Emma sighed and plopped down into her chair, gesturing for Regina to sit across the desk.   
  
     "So you wanna sublet the spot next door to me?" Neighbors with the rude girl who'd criticized one of her first works. Well, Emma wasn't in danger of having to stave off pleasure here.   
  
     When Emma applied for the lease of the building, the super had insisted she take both front store windows. Running a small shop, just a few artists and herself, the one window front was enough for a studio of dreams, for now. It'd been about three months of paying rent for both spots, when Emma put an ad in the paper looking to sublet.   
  
     "I'm looking to open a floral shop." Regina smoothed black hair back from her face, still sitting pin straight in the chair Emma had offered. This wasn't... quite what she expected from a tattoo shop. She'd picture scarier men, not Emma herself, dealing with her. And for some reason she'd pictured the store constantly full of cigarette smoke, of which she didn't detect a hint of.   
  
     The  _arc of her lillies_ comment now made sense to Emma; a florist. She couldn't picture much excitement in that.  
  
     "Right. Well, I have the lease here, if you'll agree to it." Emma shrugged; she'd been playing at business manager for a couple months, and things had mostly gone well. She employed people, she tattooed people... It worked for her.   
  
     "And you'd like the first and last months and a security deposit?" Regina read the papers Emma handed her; standard subletting documents.   
  
      Emma remembered signing the lease for this place; she'd been so nervous she'd nearly thrown up on the landlord, and she'd been so excited she could've squealed.   
  
     If the girl sitting across from her was doing any internal squealing, Emma decided it would have to be  _way, way_ deep down. 


	2. Chapter 2

      _Once Upon A Time,_ Regina's flower shop, opens mostly quietly, a small crowd gathers at an unveiling process- and it  _is_ a process, Emma thinks, because she can hear Regina Mills' voice carry orders to her staff like she hadn't spent every second of the past two weeks preparing and perfecting every fine detail of the affair.   
  
     Emma could admire the woman's work ethic; Regina's security gate was always up when Emma lifted hers, and stayed up longer most nights, too, while Regina had been getting the storefront ready for open. Not that Emma was being nosey, she just happened to  _notice_. Proximity, that's all.   
  
     On her break for lunch, Emma found herself wandered into  _Once Upon A Time-_ at Regina's counter before she realized it. Regina's head's down, and Emma can spy nimble fingers across the counter snipping thorns from roses and Emma swallows any joke she has about  _that,_ right away.   
  
    "I was wondering if you guys had any purple lillies in." Emma's joking, smile wide, watching Regina's hands skirt around the petals now, easing their blush with her fingertips. On really intricate pieces, her best work, Emma's friends and client always said she got into a  _zone_ , and Emma felt like Regina looked very much in a zone herself. A blush of insecurity ran through her, maybe she shouldn't be here at all. Even to wish the girl luck.   
  
    "Actually, not currently, but I can order a- oh, it's  _you_ , Ms. Swan." When Regina's eyes glance off the table she's a little surprised to find Emma Swan at her counter. Emma tries hard not to think of the tone in Regina's  _it's you_ , as disappointment.   
  
     "I- I was kidding. You know, from the other day." Emma fixes her eyes on a clump of daisies behind Regina's shoulder, knowing it would probably itch Regina to hear them called a  _clump. "_ How did the launch go?" Emma tries again.   
  
     "Still ongoing, as you can see." A few people were milling around the shop. Kathryn and Marian were tending customers or tending flowers or alternating. "Ultimately, I think it's going quite well."  
  
     For a second, Emma thought she heard a sigh of relief, but Regina chased it away with a grimace down at her hands.   
  
     "I really must get these to water. Was there anything I  _could_ actually do for you, Ms. Swan?" Regina's already moved on to her next task, her back to Emma.   
  
     "You can start calling me Emma." Trying to joke, Emma smiled, but Regina seemed absorbed. "I should be getting back... I really like what you've done with the place." In two weeks, Regina had really turned the face of the storefront around; new paint on the walls, new light fixtures. Emma could guess it must've cost a fortune.   
  
      "Hey, can I give you cash for these?" Emma spots a girl with a name tag  _Kathryn_ in fancy cursive that  _had_ to be Regina's, and pays the girl with a ten dollar bill for a handful of daisies.   
  
      Regina watched her landlord out, dark eyes curiously fixed on blonde hair, until Kathryn caught her eye and gave her a mischievous smile, and Regina turned her full attention back to the roses. Clipped and plumped and beautiful, she sighed. It'd been a good day, a good morning, and Regina felt something like pride. She felt tired, but she felt pride, and hearing Emma Swan liked her handiwork... could only be a compliment. 


	3. Chapter 3

      "So," Ruby was tattooing a man three times her size, while Emma sketched across the shop. "Have you seen the hot chick next door?"  
  
      Emma's mostly tried to stay clear- Regina's shop seemed to be doing well, and beyond awkward encounters at the security gates or awkward rent discussions- Emma's pretty convinced Regina isn't looking for friends. She was usually tight-lipped, monosyllabic, and wholly uninterested in any attempts Emma made at pleasantry or even flattery. _Once Upon A Time_ had really, well.... bloomed, it's color and sweet smells sometimes made Emma's mornings better. Not that she said  _that_ to Regina.    
  
     "I'm sure she'd love being pegged a hot chick- you obviously haven't  _talked_ to her." Emma considered her sketch. It was a coiling ivy wrapped around a heart; she wondered what fault Regina would find in her leaves of three. Too pointy, or not pointy enough, or how this isn't how ivy grows at all.  
  
      "I was telling Mary M, I think that chick's some kind of witch. I saw her working with dead flowers last week, like...  _Dead_ flowers. And the next day they were back to life, perked up in her shop window like some of kind of rose zombies." Ruby smiled and dabbed alcohol on the man's arm. "Not that I wouldn't let her  _have my first born_ , y'know what I mean?"  
  
     Emma thought of that first day, Regina Mills' heeled foot tapping at her. The  _pop_ of her toe on the pavement, the misplaced look of her in the tattoo shop.  
  
    "Believe me, I hear you." Emma admitted, eyes down on her sketch.   
  
     Sometimes, with the shop slow and fairly quiet like this, just her and Ruby, Emma found her whole life more believably hers. Days she got to ink and sketch she felt more recognizably Emma than a business-owning, subletting 27-year-old. Sitting here, sketching, gossiping, watching the man wince under the hum of Ruby's needle... Emma _breathed_ like this. Not to mention Ruby usually reminded her how to have fun when she occasionally forgot what that looked like.   
  
     "Later, Mary M, me, and some of the girls from next door are going down to the Rabbit Hole, it's  _karaoke night_ ," Ruby sing-songed. "Regina's supposedly  _fretfully busy_ , but you should come out with us. Fraternize with the underlings; stick it to the man and stuff." Ruby smiled and Emma felt  _just_ teased enough into maybe-submission.   
  
     "Yeah, okay. Kathryn and Marian seemed really nice." Karaoke was hardly tempting but Emma figured she could stand to learn a little bit more about her shop's neighbors. And maybe it  _would_ really be fun. 


	4. Enter and Exit

     " _This place has a mechanical bull_?" Regina's face is wincing, like she doesn't want the bottoms of her shoes getting dirty on the floor of this place. Aurora's arm is around her shoulder, assuring her that the mozzarella sticks are to kill for and the drinks are half off, and anyway, it's about time she learned her shop's neighbors.

     It's sort of like a dream sequence, Regina's almost not sure how she ended up here, but she's sure it involved fast talking and some form of abduction.

     "And all the karaoke you can sing." Ruby sidles up, lashes a-flutter and charm a-plenty, while Aurora saunters away towards a table. Hand outstretched, "I'm Ruby, I help Emma with Neverland. She's said you've really turned the store into something special; I keep meaning to pop in and admire your work for myself."

     Regina's aware that Ruby hasn't dropped her hand yet, and it's certainly not unpleasant but it's certainly unwelcome. 

     "Regina Mills. Yes," She pulls her hand back, replacing her glove, but smiling back. "I'm sure we can find you something you like."

     "Oh, I don't think you'll have trouble with that at all, Regina." Ruby's smile is genuine and suggestive and friendly all at once and Regina's positive she can feel herself melting right into the sticky, gross floor. Ruby's still smiling, "Need a drink?"

     Taking Regina's gloved hand and dragging her to the bar, all of a sudden Regina's scarf is loose, her gloves are tucked into her pocket, and she's sipping a Tom Collins in a karaoke bar. The drink's actually awful.

    Ruby's talking about her grandmother's pot pie recipe at the notion that Regina usually eats in, with cooking as sort of a side passion.

   "So, have you always wanted to be a florist? Was it like a childhood dream or love or something?" Ruby's turned her whole body to face Regina, and it'd been okay when it was pot pie recipes and laughing at the karaoke but life-ambitions feels like jumping off a cliff of personal intimacy and she hasn't told anyone why she loves flowers in a really, really long time.

   "Look, I'm sorry I've... Forgotten something back at the shop... I was supposed to... I have to go." Gloves back on, scarf neatly arranged, Regina tips the bar tender and tries not to look back.

   "Wait! You're sure you're okay to go alone? I can be good company just about anywhere, and you _just_ finished your drink."   
  
    If Regina had time to count the exact reasons she didn't do things like this, didn't go to dive bars, or drink with girls like Ruby, or  _meet the neighbors_ \- she's sure the list would've made it on to both hands.   
  
    And then the dive's door swings open and there's a sweep of blonde hair and red leather and in comes Emma Swan; what Regina's emergency exit didn't need. Or did it?  
  
   "Um, perhaps Ms. Swan would care to join me? I wouldn't want to tear you away from your evening, Ruby, and I know Aurora and Marian will never forgive me for breaking up the party." Regina sincerely means that and hoped Ruby knew. The sweating in her palms was almost about to subside, but then there was Ms. Swan to deal with. "Ms. Swan, I don't mean to impose but would you like to make a stop back at my shop with me? Cab would me my affair, naturally, it seems I'm not to be trusted after one... medium-sized, half priced drink here." The questions out before she's made a plan, how she's going to get away from Emma after she gets away from Ruby and this awful game of leap frog hide-and-seek could be over and Regina could just go home to her cat, possibly forever.   
  
    Regina's dark eyes are pleading and Emma's really curious about what that means. Plus, Emma's pretty sure she hates karaoke.   
  
     "I, um, can drive us, actually? No cab necessary. Ruby, are you coming with?" In the corner of her eye, Emma catches Regina blink hard. _Is she wearing gloves to a karaoke bar?_  The quirk in Ruby's eyebrow always means trouble but she shrugs at Emma eventually.   
  
     "I have a bull record to crush, actually. 2.2 seconds, thank you, thank you. Regina, good luck with your work thing, I hope we can hang out some other time." Ruby's smiling again and Regina feels bad but she has to get out of there and if that means she has to get in a car with Emma Swan, so be it.   
  
    "Shall we?" Just a hint of uncertainty in her voice, Emma can't wait to hear what this is about. Or why Regina's even being... cordial, to any of them. Wasn't she not even supposed to be here?

    


	5. New Friends

     "Um, my car's... this way." Storybrooke isn't exactly known for it's wild nightlife; the streets are mostly quiet now, especially since it's a chilly night.   
  
     "Right." Out of the fire, into the frying pan, mostly Regina thinks she just wants to go home. "Yellow?"  
  
     She didn't curb her distaste when they stopped in front of a yellow beetle.  
  
     "I...liked it." They got in. "I stole it," Emma added guiltily, and Regina's shocked expression almost makes her want to tell the full story. Almost. "What, you've been an upstanding business lady since birth?" Emma tried humor since Regina's face still held the edge of panic from the bar.  
  
     "Well, certainly would've made it easier," Regina breathes, lips pursed in a sad smile, and the bug's never felt smaller to Emma.   
  
     She fiddles with the radio the whole drive, and Regina's glad it's not very long at all.  _Once Upon A Time_ , gated and darkened, Regina realizes it's become an odd sort of home to her now, too. Her head's stopped feeling the swimming affects of the Tom Collins so she doesn't understand why she hears her mouth invite Emma Swan in.  
  
     "Sure, I'd love to, if you don't mind." There's a second of a shared smile, and Emma can't figure Regina out at all.   
  
     There are two office chairs, and before Regina knows it, their scarfs are off and they're drinking the Scotch Kathryn gave her on the shop's opening day, and Emma Swan's laughing about a poker game where she swindled a man out of his clothes and left with them. It's so easy, in an unfamiliar way, Regina thinks, looking at Emma's head thrown back, giggling.   
  
     "You've lived some life, Emma." Regina's voice, warm with the Scotch, makes Emma's eyes light up at the use of her first name. "I've been to school and... and that's about it, I suppose."  
  
     Emma vaguely remembers thinking Regina could be boring, but it's a thought she's long moved passed sitting across from her.  
  
    "Is there a flower school?" Emma's head tilts towards the heart of the shop, the vibrancy of color and life that Regina's responsible for. In a second, Regina's brought back to how she'd panicked with Ruby, how she'd ran, but this feels different and she lets the tilt of Emma's head guide her into letting it feel different.   
  
     "No.. No flower school," Even uncertain, Regina teases back. "My father loved flowers, he taught me everything he knew before he died. Our garden was always teeming with different varieties and combinations. He really loved when the sunflowers would come up though. I still remember them being taller than me. My mother insisted I attend proper schooling, she believed I was meant to be a doctor." Her voice was clipped, but Emma's eyes focused on her spurred her on when she faltered. "I finished last year; all the programs she wanted. She died in January, just before she could see me graduate. I skipped graduation." Knowing her framed degrees were locked in the file drawer in the office, well, that wasn't something she was ready to share.   
  
     Glasses empty, neither dared move to go, and Regina still feels like squirming under Emma's gaze. Like maybe she left the shop's thermostat on too high. 


End file.
